


spruce it up

by bigfootsflannel



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Christmas Fluff, Glenn Fraldarius Lives, M/M, felix and sylvain are TOTALLY just friends, is Glenn too invested in his brother's love life? maybe probably
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:01:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28103613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bigfootsflannel/pseuds/bigfootsflannel
Summary: Felix brings Sylvain home for Christmas to avoid being with his own family, ostensibly. Glenn has thoughts.
Relationships: Felix Hugo Fraldarius/Sylvain Jose Gautier
Comments: 20
Kudos: 140





	spruce it up

It didn't actually stand out as being strange to Glenn at first when Felix sent out a text informing him and Rodrigue that Sylvain was going to be coming home with him and spending winter break with the Fraldariuses.

(He didn't ask, he just declared it, and it was enough of a miracle that Felix was choosing to come home for Christmas that their father clearly wasn't going to fight him on Sylvain's presence.)

After all, Sylvain had been a frequent visitor in their house for years. Their house had acted as a landing pad for all of Felix's friends, really, but at least they'd know to expect Dimitri and Ingrid. Sylvain would just show up nearly at random, or Felix would get home after school or practice and just happen to have Sylvain in tow. Watching them interact, it felt half the time like Felix hated him, but he kept bringing him around just the same.

The point was, it didn't raise any red flags. Especially not given the fact that it was a terribly-kept secret that the ties within the Gautier family were tenuous as best in recent years. Nobody expected him to go home to his family, even with Miklan out of the picture, and maybe tagging along with Felix was the best option.

Glenn got home for the holidays a few days earlier than Felix, and was immediately set to the task of getting the guest room, which had been being used as a study, ready for Sylvain. “You don't need to do that,” Felix had told them when their father mentioned that it would need doing, to which Glenn had told him that if he didn't, Sylvain would get Felix's room and he would be the one sleeping on the couch. That was just what it meant to be a good host, after all.

He hadn't thought anything of it until after they arrived.

They arrived in the late afternoon, the sun already threatening to go down the way that it did far too early as winter set in. Felix was loaded down with what appeared to be both his luggage and Sylvain's, while the other man followed behind him up into the house.

“Welcome home,” Rodrigue greeted him, forcing him into a brief hug before pulling back. “How was the drive?”

“Traffic was okay,” Felix answered. Shooting a look back at his companion, he added, “Someone realized a couple hours in that he forgot his glasses, so I had to drive the whole way while he napped half the time.”

“Oops,” Sylvain said brightly, his tone conveying that he was only minimally remorseful. “Not my fault he plays nothing but coffeehouse playlists. It's like he wants me to fall asleep.”

“It's calming,” he responded in a tone that made it clear that they had had this argument previously.

“Well,” Glenn cut in, pulling Felix into a hug of his own, “better that than the metal he used to blast when he was a teenager.”

Rolling his eyes, Felix brushed past him. “I hope you know I did that specifically because our bedrooms shared a wall.”

“You know, I had a feeling. Hey, let me help with those,” he said, reaching for the handle of one of the bags, though Felix pulled away. As if it somehow Glenn's offer was implying that he was weak and couldn't handle it himself.

“I've got it.”

After Felix brought in their bags and brought them upstairs, stubbornly refusing help from any of them, they all sat down in the living room. Despite there being plenty of room on the couch, Sylvain had placed himself close enough to Felix that their thighs were practically touching. Felix didn't push him away.

And that, by itself, also wasn't necessarily enough to set off alarms. Sylvain had always been a little overly familiar with people. He was a big physical touch person, and even though Felix was absolutely not a physical touch person, he had seemed to have been worn down enough that he allowed it when it came from Sylvain (and only Sylvain).

They ordered in a couple of pizzas and spent the evening catching up on what they had all been doing since they were last together in one spot; that was to say that Sylvain filled Glenn and his father in, because Felix was incredibly busy looking like he didn't want to be there. His input was a little bit limited, but it worked well enough, because Sylvain could talk a lot. Had he always been so talkative? Was he just trying to put on the charm? Glenn couldn't remember.

At any rate, it was clear that Sylvain and Felix's friendship was as strong as ever, given how often the redhead was able to tell stories about  _ we _ and  _ us _ .

“You almost sound like a married couple,” Glenn teased, mostly because he loved to ruffle his baby brother's feathers. He immediately was on the receiving end of Felix's practiced scathing glare.

To his surprise and delight, though, Sylvain barked out a laugh, and the glare was then turned on him.

It wasn't long after that that Felix got to his feet. “It was a long drive, I'm going to go to bed,” he said. Looking back at the couch, he went on, “And I'll show Sylvain to his room.”

Part of Glenn wanted to protest that Sylvain probably knew this house just as well as any of them and thus almost certainly didn't need to be shown to his room. Ultimately, he knew his brother well enough to know that it was probably an excuse to make sure Sylvain isn't left unsupervised with his family.

“Good idea. Rest up, because tomorrow we're going to the Christmas tree farm,” his father says to them.

Felix groaned but didn't otherwise complain, already halfway up the steps.

“Goodnight, Fraldariuses. Thanks for playing host,” Sylvain said, complete with a little bow, to the two of them left in the living room before following after Felix.

~~~

It was probably the coldest day they'd had yet this year, which would be exactly their luck for the day that they were going out to pick out their Christmas tree.

Felix had done some grumbling in the morning about it, saying that they'd save themselves a whole lot of trouble by just getting an artificial tree.

“You know that it's a tradition, Felix,” their father had said, sparing him just a glance over his coffee cup. It was clear he wasn't going to budge an inch on it. “It wouldn't be Christmas without it. They're just not the same.”

“Besides,” Glenn put in, “real trees are actually better for the environment. Be part of the solution, not the problem.”

“Ah, yes. Eco warrior Glenn Fraldarius strikes again,” Felix said flatly, but didn't put up any further argument.

When they all packed into Rodrigue's old Jeep Grand Cherokee, Felix was bundled up in an oversized parka, and he didn't fight Glenn for the shotgun seat, instead easily sliding into the back with Sylvain. (This was where he perhaps should have started getting suspicious, in hindsight.) “Pull your seat up,” he said as he settled into his own seat, his leg darting out to kick the side of the passenger seat. “We should’ve had Sylvain sit up front.” Which, to be fair, might have actually been a good idea; the Fraldarius brothers both were not particularly tall men, while Sylvain was.

In his absence, it had almost been too easy to forget how Felix had been cursed with an inability to handle the cold. And a lack of care to put in the forethought to defend himself against the cold.

Sylvain, however, had apparently been dealing with his plenty, because when the group stopped to inspect a tree, he didn't even seem fazed in the slightest when Felix marched over to him and shoved his hands into his armpits.

Rodrigue was busy poking and prodding at the tree to check for any bald spots or unevenness, and hell, Sylvain was giving his own input as well, but Glenn could hardly help himself but to openly stare at the blatant physical contact that his brother had initiated.  _ Felix _ , prickly and notorious for keeping everyone at arm's length, had voluntarily pressed himself close to another person and was nearly embracing him.

After a few seconds, Felix seemed to feel the weight of Glenn's gaze on him, and he looked over at him. “What,” he said, as though nothing out of the ordinary was happening, though there was pink creeping onto his cheeks that was only maybe because of the cold. “I can't help that he's like a furnace.”

Perking up, Sylvain let out a laugh as he looked over at Glenn as well. “It's true, I've got a fire burning in my chest,” he said. With a wink, he added, “If you want in on this, all you have to do is ask.”

And Glenn was certainly not about to take him up on that offer, but Felix took it upon himself to decline for him. “Don't even dare.”

“Aw, jealous?” Sylvain teased.

Felix was about to respond when their father cleared his throat beside them. “Come on, you three. Let's try and keep the peace,” he said. “Don't get distracted, we have a goal here.”

As they all started to walk again, looking for another suitable tree, Sylvain fished a spare pair of gloves out of his pockets and helped Felix to get them on.

It was enough to get the gears in Glenn's brain to start turning.

~~~

Sylvain made it look easy, hauling the tree up on top of the car and pulling it back down when they got back to the house.

“Alright, Papa Fraldarius, where are we taking this bad boy?” he asked as he brought it up to the front door.

Felix was trailing behind him, ostensibly to make sure that he didn't have any trouble carrying it, though Glenn was  _ thinking _ , and he wasn't sure that Felix wasn't actually following Sylvain simply because of the fact that he wanted to watch a strong, muscled man carry a domesticated tree around.

The facts were these:

When Felix was fifteen, he had let himself into Glenn's room, sat on his bed and told him he was gay, all the while staring at the floor. Glenn had hugged him then laughed and messed up his hair, informing him that he was bi himself.

Felix had never really dated anyone, even though Glenn had almost expected that to be what he was building up to by coming out. Their father had tried to tell him that it was okay and he could tell him if he was in a relationship and he would treat whoever he dated just the same as he had when Glenn had brought girlfriends home, but he just… hadn't.

(Glenn had once even asked point blank if he was dating Dimitri, and Felix had looked more insulted than he had in his entire life, so that was that.)

Sylvain was Felix's closest, most long-term friend, though Ingrid was probably a close second there. It had mostly been a matter of their parents working together, but they had clicked.

Sylvain was also the kind of person that was… polarizing. He'd said and done things that had left a bad taste in Glenn's mouth, but to be fair he had always seemed to be a good friend to Felix.

Felix was willingly touching Sylvain and apparently spent a disproportionate amount of time with him as opposed to anyone else or even in his own company, despite always having been something of a loner.

With all of that in consideration, it was difficult to not let his mind start jumping to conclusions, no matter how ridiculous it seemed. It almost made a strange kind of sense that Felix might have ended up dating Sylvain.

(Though also, actually, it was strange to think about what Felix's standards must have been like if it was insulting to think he might be dating Dimitri, but Sylvain Jose Gautier, known slut, was - possibly - perfectly acceptable to actually date and bring home for the holidays. Probably better not to think too much about it, or bring it up at all, frankly.)

~~~

With the idea in mind that Felix might have been hiding the true nature of his relationship with Sylvain, Glenn started to watch.

He decided that it would be best to keep a closer eye on Sylvain, for a couple of reasons; one: he needed to be sure that he was good enough for his sweet baby brother, and two: it was also just as possible that Felix had feelings that weren't being returned.

It wasn't like he was actively snooping. He was just keeping an eye on the situation.

In the afternoon, Sylvain had spent a not insignificant amount of time focused on his phone. It didn't seem unreasonable that he might be texting other people, and when Glenn casually walked by and looked down at his phone, he honestly kind of expected to see Tinder or another similar app up on the phone. Instead, what had drawn him in was apparently… Pinterest? It was a surprise, but all things considered it did have to be a victory. Gautier would have to be a hell of a charmer to be using Pinterest as a hookup app.

“Hey, you guys have a crockpot, right?” he asked eventually, and it took a moment for Rodrigue to think about it before nodding.

“I believe we do,” the man said, which was a strangely cagey and most likely incredibly unhelpful answer, but to be fair, it probably hadn't been used in years if it did exist.

Sylvain shrugged, sitting up. “Eh, I'll have to go to the store anyway, and they're cheap. It'll be my gift to the household,” he said.

“Oh good, more random clutter he'll refuse to throw out,” Felix commented, only to receive a light shove.

Rodrigue was looking in the direction of the kitchen still, pointedly ignoring their conversation. “Check in the cupboard next to the dishwasher, I feel like there might be one in there.”

“Aye aye,” the redhead said, pushing himself up off of the sectional and heading into the kitchen. There was the sound of a couple of cabinet doors opening and closing, a long pause, and then, “Huh.”

“Huh?” Felix echoed, questioning.

“So, I found it,” he said, and a moment later he appeared in the doorway again, holding up the crockpot and looking a bit confused. “But the power cord is… Well, it’s seen better days.” Indeed, there were a few inches of cord sticking out of the back of the appliance, at which point it came to an abrupt end with a clean cut. “Not to suggest you’ve got a rodent problem or anything, but maybe something got to it?”

Glenn stared for a moment, something about it feeling frustratingly familiar, until finally the memory clicked into place. “Oh, shit,” he said, a laugh escaping with the words. Rodrigue gave him a look, but frankly they were all adults here and he had given up worrying about cursing in front of his father several years ago. “Felix, do you remember what you did to that poor thing?”

Felix looked back at him with narrowed eyes, seemingly a little bit insulted at being accused, though begrudgingly he admitted a moment later, “I remember.”

“Yeah, not a rat problem,” he said, looking back at Sylvain, who looked suitably curious and eager to hear this. “A couple of years ago, he was cooking and somehow just… cut right through. And yet he had the nerve to laugh at Dimitri for accidentally breaking things.”

It was a little conspicuous, the way that Sylvain’s eyes slid back to Felix at the mention of Dimitir, but he seemed unbothered by it, simply shrugging. “Bold of you to assume that I did it by accident.”

“And why would you do it on purpose?”

“I don’t know, maybe to see if Dad would notice.”

To his credit, their father laughed. “What am I supposed to be making in it all alone when you’re all not here?” he asked. Looking back to Sylvain, he asked, “That raises another question. What do you need the slow cooker for?”

“Oh,” he said, letting out a little laugh as though just now realizing that he hadn’t actually said what he was up to yet. He pulled out his phone again and unlocked it, holding it up to display what was on his screen: “Crockpot hot cocoa.”

“Crockpot hot cocoa,” Glenn echoed, raising his eyebrows.

“Yeah. Seemed to be the right thing for the holiday season. It'll warm you right up,” he said.

Felix raised an eyebrow. “Can’t you just buy the packets and microwave some water?”

“No, Felix, you can’t. That barely tastes like anything. It’s warm water with a hint of chocolate flavor,” he said. “Listen, you don’t have to like it, but you’re going to at least try it.”

He shrugged noncommittally, but it was probably the most positive reaction Sylvain could have hoped for, assuming that he hadn’t had a breakthrough in his hatred of sweet things. “Maybe.”

“Anyway, if I’m going to make this happen, then I need to go to the store. Where are your keys?” he asked him, leaning over the back of the couch towards Felix.

“You still don’t have your glasses,” he said, looking at him with narrowed eyes. “You’re not supposed to drive without them.”

Waving a hand dismissively, Sylvain said, “I didn’t want to drive up here because I couldn’t read the signs. We grew up here, I know the roads.”

There were a few seconds of silence in which Felix seemed to be considering it, during which both Rodrigue and Glenn were watching him curiously; ever since he’d gotten his own car, nobody else had been allowed to drive it, even if it was just within their driveway. It felt like it would be a no-brainer to not let Sylvain drive, especially a near-sighted Sylvain with no glasses or contacts. “My keys are in the duffel bag,” he said. Then, a moment later, “But hold on, I’ll come along.”

“Perfect,” he said brightly, giving Felix a grin before turning to head up the stairs to collect Felix’s keys.

When they left the house, Glenn glanced out the window to watch them. He had been fully expecting to see Felix getting into the driver’s seat after all, but Sylvain had the keys in hand and took his place behind the wheel without a fight from Felix.

“I think they’re married,” he said, mostly to himself, though behind him he could hear his father stifle a laugh.

“I am going to refrain from saying anything.”

~~~

When night fell and they were putting decorations on the tree, Sylvain had started playing Christmas music from his phone. At one point he'd wanted to skip a song, but he was tangled up in the string of lights, so Glenn had gone ahead and done it for him. To his surprise, behind his notifications, there was a picture of Felix and Sylvain.

Again, he wasn’t snooping. He was just taking an active role in looking out for his brother’s best interests.

In fact, he was actively  _ not _ snooping, because he actually swiped away a couple of his notifications without reading them at all (after all, they were nothing scandalous like Tinder messages), purely so that he could get a better look at the picture.

Sylvain had Felix on his lockscreen. Not only that, but he had apparently managed to talk Felix into cooperating for a selfie, which had to have been a herculean task all of its own. He wasn't exactly smiling, though maybe there was a little upturn in the very corner of his mouth, but he at least wasn't glaring at the camera. He looked… content.

He looked back up to watch as Felix and Sylvain worked together to string up the lights on the tree, with Felix dictating where exactly on the branches he needed to be placing the lights to have them perfectly spaced.

It seemed likely enough at this point that yes, they were at very least interested in each other romantically. While Glenn had never been particularly close to Sylvain, he still had known him well enough to know that this… wasn't the kind of person he'd once been. Teenager Sylvain had flirted with everyone, and Glenn was pretty sure he wouldn't have had the patience to listen to Felix's directions like this. In all reality, neither of them in high school would have had the patience for this (Rodrigue had always been the one to string up the lights, and then Glenn and Felix had put up the ornaments; this year, their father seemed to be enjoying being free of that duty), but somehow they had come to where they were now.

Sylvain and Felix were both detached in their own ways, but they'd managed to have gotten over it at least for each other. It was kind of beautiful, in a way, and maybe eventually he would get to tease Felix about it.

For now, though, Sylvain had successfully gotten the lights to the top of the tree, and he pretended to trip as he headed back down off of the step ladder, making Felix snap at him and call him an idiot.

“Look at me, I’m in one piece. Just a joke.”

“Just a joke,” Felix echoed in a tone that made it clear that he didn’t really see the humor in it.

“Anyway, it looks like it’s about cocoa o’clock,” he said, lifting his arm to look at his watch in dramatic fashion. He moved into the kitchen from there, with Felix following behind him, and he moved about the kitchen as if he lived there, pulling mugs from the cabinet for each of them, in spite of Felix's protests that he didn't want any.

Once mugs full of the warm beverage were delivered to the older Fraldariuses, he filled the last two.

“Don't bother filling a whole cup for me. I agreed to taste it, I'll take a sip from yours,” Felix said, and Glenn couldn't help himself but to peek into the kitchen to watch them.

Sylvain shrugged. “I mean, you could, you certainly could. But you're going to want it,” he said, sounding awfully confident for someone who was facing off against Felix.

“You're impossible,” he said.

“I'll take ownership of that. Now, open up,” he said, holding up his mug and moving towards Felix.

He looked flustered for a second, hands coming up as if to take hold of the cup from him, but ultimately, surprisingly, he allowed Sylvain to bring it to his lips and tilt it back. His hands landed on top of Sylvain's to help steady the cup and not pour hot cocoa all over himself, and something about it felt like Glenn really shouldn't ought to be seeing it.

Their hands stayed together as the cup lowered and Felix swallowed. There was a brief silence where neither of them said anything, until Sylvain finally prompted, “So, what do you think?”

“Eh, it's not awful,” he said.

Laughing, Sylvain grinned at him, clearly taking it as a win as he brought the cup up to his own lips to take a sip from it as well. “Yeah? I'll go ahead and pour you your own,” he said.

Sighing, Felix leaned against the counter to watch him, not protesting any further than that. “Yeah. It's alright,” he said. “Reminds me of when Mom used to make it.”

“Yeah, I thought it might,” he said, giving Felix a look so fond that it made  _ Glenn's _ heart hurt a little. The look cracked into a smile a second later, though, and he went on, “Though, truth be told, I was a little worried I'd have to switch it up a bit to make it suit your current tastes. Some cayenne or something to give it a kick.”

“That trick won't work for everything,” he said. “But… No, it's fine as it is.”

“Thanks, Fe,” he said with a content hum, cupping his mug in both of his hands. They were still standing close to each other, casual and comfortable in a way that felt like it had to come from a place of habit, until finally the moment broke and Sylvain led him back into the living room.

Immediately after Felix sat down, Sylvain tossed his legs up to rest in his lap, only to have them unceremoniously shoved back onto the floor.

Because Sylvain apparently did still have a brain that liked to wander off, after a couple of minutes, he looked out of the window and lifted his leg to lightly nudge Felix with his foot. “Hey, remember that time that I broke my arm?”

“When we were out sledding as kids,” he confirmed with a nod, a small frown on his lips. “Of course I remember.”

“We all remember, I'm sure,” their father said, looking over at them. “That was quite the ordeal.”

“And by that, he means you were a fucking mess,” Glenn said, unable to help himself but to laugh as he looked at Felix. “Everyone thought it was you that was hurt, the way you ran in here sobbing.”

“I needed to get your help, and you laughed,” Felix said, giving both of them a harsh enough glare that if he didn't know any better, Glenn might have thought that he was still upset about it to this day.

“Hey hey, I survived,” Sylvain put in, sticking his arm out and wiggling it around as if to demonstrate just how well it had healed.

Shaking his head, Felix gave him a light shove, “That's not the point.”

“I know, I know,” he said, giving him a smile and wrapping his arm around his shoulder. Felix didn't push him away. “It was a harrowing experience, I know.”

“I hate all three of you,” Felix announced, but at the same time he was subtly settling himself in closer to Sylvain.

“Only Glenn laughed,” Rodrigue pointed out, and Glenn was distracted enough by that accusation that he moved past his speculation about the nature of his baby brother's relationship with his (apparently formerly) womanizing best friend.

Clearing his throat, he protested, “You don't have to lie.”

“It's not a lie,” he said. “I would never laugh at one of my children in distress.”

“I hate all three of you, and you're absolutely full of shit,” Felix reiterated.

Beside him, Sylvain laughed and squeezed his shoulder, and he seemed to settle back in for them to watch whatever Christmas movie Rodrigue was choosing to subject them to in the name of the spirit of the holiday.

~~~

The next morning, Christmas Eve, Sylvain borrowed Felix's car again before he woke up in order to run into town and pick up breakfast ingredients (“he won't mind, not when I put a plate of bacon in front of him,” he'd explained as he put his boots on). By the time he got back, Glenn was still the only one awake.

There was something fascinating about the way that Sylvain seemed to take to whatever environment that he put himself in. That was something that apparently hadn't changed as he matured; having grown up as the golden child of the Gautier family, he had always been gifted, and maybe that had led into the way he always came across as being so very confident in himself. Glenn remembered the way that Felix had grumbled about how Sylvain had never seemed to struggle in anything he did.

Felix was absolutely the sort of person who could not cook for himself. No one in the Fraldarius family was, really; they were just good enough at faking it to get by. But even once he'd moved off campus, Felix had purchased the largest meal plan and just got most of his meals on campus. It had seemed reasonable enough that Sylvain would be the same way - he  _ seemed _ like exactly the type.

Of course, breakfast wasn’t an overly complicated meal to cook, or so Glenn had been told. But still, the redhead was comfortable and humming to himself as he moved about the kitchen, perfectly at ease.

For several minutes, the two men shared a not-uncomfortable silence. It was a little bit strange; reasonably, he felt like he should have been able to have a normal conversation with Sylvain, given how long they had known each other, and how there really wasn’t that much of an age gap between them. But enough time had passed since they’d spent any significant amount of time together that most of Glenn’s knowledge of Sylvain was either years old and clearly outdated, or filtered through Faerghus’s gossip mill.

Still, he did know an opportunity when he saw it. “So,” he said, surprised at how Sylvain jumped just a little bit at the sudden break in the silence. “Felix.”

“What about him?”

Of course he wasn’t just going to come right out and admit to whatever there was or wasn’t between them; that would have been too easy. “I feel like you know,” he said anyway. “Do I need to have a protective older brother talk with you?”

Pausing for a moment, Sylvain turned to face him, his brows furrowed for just a moment before his expression smoothed out again. He didn’t know how to read him, which he supposed was intentional. “I think that he would kill you if he found out that you tried,” he said, a good-spirited laugh coloring the edges of his words.

It wasn’t confirmation or denial - though he suspected that Sylvain would have been a little bit more direct about it if there was nothing going on between them - but he didn’t have time to prod at it any further, interrupted by the sound of footsteps on the stairs.

The smell of bacon cooking had apparently been enough to wake up his father, who joined Glenn at the kitchen island and they watched their breakfast be made. “Felix isn’t up?” he asked, though the answer to that question was self-evident. “I thought he was more of a morning person.”

“He is and he isn’t,” Sylvain supplied, glancing back at them with a small shrug. He opened his mouth to speak and then, seemingly thinking better of it, just turned away from them and carried on what he was doing, teasing up the edge of a pancake to check the doneness of its underside.

“The Blaiddyd Christmas party is tonight,” his father said, his tone suspiciously casual in an unnatural way.

Every year, Dimitri’s family held a big party on Christmas Eve, and it seemed to be the event of the season for everyone who was anyone in the area. As a teenager, it had usually meant sneaking away to get drunk while the adults went around boasting on their accomplishments for the year. To the best of Glenn’s knowledge, Felix and his friends had kept up the tradition, with even Dimitri himself participating. Also to the best of his knowledge, Felix hadn’t gone in a few years.

Sylvain laughed. “Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that,” he said.

“Do you think that Felix will be interested in attending?”

There was a brief pause where Sylvain didn’t answer, and he suspected that it was probably because he was trying to find a polite way of saying that there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Felix would be interested in attending. “Doubtful,” he said eventually. “And truth be told, I don’t really think I’m into it, either.”

Glenn couldn’t exactly be surprised by that, letting out a dry laugh. After all, it was exactly the sort of event that the Gautiers wouldn’t think of missing. “What, you aren’t eager to see Mommy and Daddy Dearest?”

Tapping his nose and then pointing at him, he let out a sigh. “Yeah. Nothing against the Blaiddyds or anything, send my love to Dimitri and his father and all that, but,” he paused for a moment, shrugging. “Anyway, I think everyone will be better off if I hang around here, too.”

“As much as I’m sure Dimitri would appreciate seeing you - the both of you, I respect your choice,” Rodrigue said, and the whole thing was a lot easier than expected; it was probably because he knew that fighting with Felix on this would be more trouble than it was worth, especially being that the odds of talking him into going were slim to none. Floating the idea out to his best friend (boyfriend?) about it instead was probably actually his best idea in a while. “If you light the house on fire, call 911 and  _ then _ me.”

Grinning, Sylvain opened a cabinet door to pull down another mug. “If we light the house on fire, we will put it out ourselves, don’t worry,” he said. He filled the cup with coffee, then opened up the container of cinnamon to sprinkle some into it. “I can ask him about the party, but I doubt he’ll even consider it,” he said, offering Rodrigue a small smile.

“I appreciate it nonetheless,” the older man said with a small nod.

“Sure. Anyway, I think it’s about time I go rouse the beast and offer him tribute,” he said, stirring the coffee before discarding the spoon and disappearing up the stairs.

It took all the power in the world for Glenn to  _ not _ poke fun at Felix for the sheer domesticity of his  _ friend _ knowing how he liked his coffee and bringing it to him in bed. He hoped the eye contact he made with Sylvain across the table conveyed the message well enough.

~~~

Unsurprisingly, the two of them didn’t end up going with Glenn and Rodrigue to the Christmas party. Which was fine, because frankly if either of them were there, they probably would have caused a scene in one way or another.

(Felix had never actually stabbed anyone, as far as he was aware, but the threat had been made at least a couple of times, and he certainly had the glare of someone willing to follow through.)

As it was, the party was fine. Perfectly tolerable, even though Glenn was now considered a responsible adult and couldn’t sneak away. But he found that now that he was an adult, surprisingly enough, their conversations weren’t quite so dreadful. He waded his way through the questions about grad school, ending the night a pleasant level of wine drunk (a perfectly acceptable, classy form of drunkenness).

When they came back after midnight, they weren’t expecting Sylvain or Felix to still be awake, though they were surprised to find that the television in the living room was still on. The lights were off, casting a flickering, blue light across the room. Sylvain was seated on the couch, leaned back against the cushions, his gaze pointed towards the screen with a little bit too much focus for the commercial that was playing.

“Oh, hey,” he said when he noticed that they’d come in, looking over his shoulder with a small smile. His voice was hushed, just above a whisper. “How was the party?”

“It was pretty good,” Glenn answered. “I don’t know if it’s actually possible, but I swear that Dimitri gets bigger and broader each time I see him.”

A quiet laugh fell from Sylvain’s lips. “Honestly, I could see that being the case. I don’t know how he does it,” he said, which struck Glenn as a kind of unfair statement coming from someone who was also decently big and broad (not that he’d been looking). “I’ll talk Felix into seeing him at some point, I need to get his birthday-Christmas present to him.”

Pausing for a moment, he considered whether or not to keep the conversation this level of heaviness; after all, it was late, and they weren’t particularly close for him to know how to handle anything more than surface-level conversation. “I saw your parents,” he said. “Obviously, I guess. They asked about you; I guess they heard you were here.”

There was only a fraction of a second where Sylvain seemed to tense, but it passed so quickly that it might as well have never happened. “Ah. Well, I can’t say I’m that surprised.”

Glenn moved around the couch to sit down on the arm of it, stopping short for just a second when he realized why Sylvain had never brought his voice up above the hush he had started at. Felix was laid out across the couch, his head resting on Sylvain’s thigh, an arm wrapped around his waist. Sylvain’s fingers were in his hair, and sure, there was probably some kind of perfectly reasonable and heterosexual explanation for it if someone tried to piece one together, but he felt like Occam’s razor dictated that that wasn’t the case. “I mean, they didn’t make a big deal out of it,” he said once he pulled himself together.

Still, seeming to realize that he was caught, Sylvain disentangled his hand from dark locks, ignoring the grumble that escaped Felix when his fingers briefly caught on a tangle. “Yeah, probably just the sort of thing that they felt like they needed to do. They didn’t really try to convince me to come see them while I’m here, you know?” he said, letting out a quiet chuckle and shaking his head.

“Right,” he said. “Well, I think they did give Dad something to give to you.”

“Oh, good. Can’t wait to see what the hell that is,” he said, a more genuine laugh accompanying the words. Glancing down at Felix, he added, “Anyway, I should probably get this guy to bed. Not sure what the rules are on Santa coming if you’re not in bed.”

Glenn couldn’t help but laugh at that, even though a part of him didn’t want to let Sylvain get away so easily again - he wanted to prod at it a little bit, see if he could get an actual, definitive answer.

(He was only thinking as a good big brother, not out of a love of gossip, even if he did also happen to love gossip. If they had feelings for each other but they hadn’t acted on them, well, he only had a limited time to help push things along before they both disappeared back to school.)

“I think that it’s fine as long as he’s asleep, but I can’t be sure,” he said instead of busting out the can opener on this can of worms just yet.

“Ah. Well, better play it safe, right?” Sylvain said. He shifted forward in his seat, once more hushing Felix’s mostly-asleep protests at being disturbed. “C’mon, sourpuss, night night.” Instead of making him get up, which the younger man seemed utterly uninterested in doing, he adjusted him to be able to slip his arms underneath his body and lift him in a bridal carry. “Goodnight, Glenn. See you in the morning.”

“Goodnight,” he echoed, watching him disappear down the hall before padding to the kitchen to get a snack before bed.

And if Glenn happened to notice when he went upstairs that the guest room was suspiciously empty, well, he was going to artfully ignore that fact, because he was a cool big brother.

(Did he count as Sylvain’s big brother, too? He could certainly be a better one than Miklan, that was for damn sure.)

~~~

Christmas mornings now that they were adults were a much more casual, quiet affair than when they were children.

Glenn could remember when they were younger, how Felix would have trouble sleeping and, because of their parents’ insistence that they not wake them up before five in the morning, would find his way into his older brother’s room instead. They’d curl up under his comforter together and watch cartoons until it was an acceptable hour to get up.

In contrast, Rodrigue was actually the first one up that morning, sitting in the living room with a glass of orange juice in one hand and a newspaper held up in the other. “Merry Christmas, Glenn,” he said, apparently not even having to look up to know it was him.

“Merry Christmas,” he said back before going to join him, grabbing the remote off of the coffee table to turn on the television. “I’m watching cartoons.”

“By all means,” his father said, gesturing magnanimously towards the screen.

“Good. Despite getting more sleep than all of us, I’m sure that Felix won’t be up for a bit,” he said. “I need entertainment.”

For the most part, they sat in companionable quiet as familiar, old cartoon specials played in front of them; he’d seen them enough times that he didn’t need to pay them much attention anymore, but it was a familiar tradition.

Eventually he dragged himself back to his feet - maybe he had just enough of that childhood spirit left in him that he couldn’t sit still for too long on Christmas morning - and put cinnamon rolls in the oven to cook before going up the stairs. He banged on his brother’s door to wake him up and tell him that it wasn’t his fault if Felix stayed in bed too long and the icing on the rolls had gone cold.

(Once again, he was respectfully neglecting to notice the fact that the guest room was empty. Honestly, he would have expected Sylvain to be a little bit less sloppy than to leave the door wide open as he had.)

After they were all gathered downstairs, they went through the motions of having breakfast together before exchanging presents, all sitting cross-legged on the floor like they were all children again.

Truth be told, though he’d been given some gifts that were wonderful, Glenn was honestly a little bit more curious about what Felix and Sylvain had gotten each other, even though acknowledging that fact made him feel like a goddamn creep. He almost expected them to say they’d already privately exchanged gifts or hadn’t gotten each other anything (which would have absolutely been a lie, but one he couldn’t call them out on), but there were indeed two gifts tucked away under the tree from each of them to the other. They’d each artfully left them for last.

Sylvain laughed as he moved to pick up the box that was addressed to him. “Damn, Fe, did you get me bricks?” he asked. He dragged the package over to its destination instead, dropping back down onto the floor.

“Yes,” Felix said flatly. “It’s one step up from coal. Save them up, eventually you’ll be able to make something.” He leaned forward as he watched him, his elbows propped up on his knees, and for all that he seemed to want to appear casual, it felt apparent to at least Glenn that he was some amount of nervous about Sylvain liking his gift. It was sweet, actually.

Sylvain hummed, sliding his finger underneath a seam and pulling tape away from paper. He had opened all of his presents surprisingly primly, so it didn’t seem too likely that he was going slowly to tease Felix, but it was also entirely possible. “Bold strategy,” he commented. “I know where your windows are, and I’ve got a good throwing arm.”

“Shut up and open your gift.”

Laughing, he nodded and pulled back the wrapping paper, then pulled back the flaps on the box that his gift was in. He furrowed his brow for just a moment before he reached in and pulled out something made of gray, fuzzy fabric. “Oh,” he said. “Is this one of those heavy blankets?”

“Weighted blanket,” he corrected with a small nod. “I - yeah. You’re a restless sleeper. That might help.” His cheeks went a little bit red, as if realizing that his words implied a level of knowledge one didn’t get unless they were there to see someone sleep.

“Neat,” he said, not wasting any time in unfolding the blanket and wrapping it around himself. He leaned back as if it were weighing him down beyond the ability to keep himself upright, letting out a hum. “Yeah, I can see that being a game changer. And it’s so soft, c’mon, give it a feel.”

Reluctant, Felix just looked at him for a moment before ultimately he did reach out, touching the fabric for a moment. “The reviews were good.”

“You did good. Thanks, Felix.”

“You’re welcome,” he said, looking at him for a moment longer before snapping his gaze away to the box in front of himself. It was small, with a tacky bow stuck on it, and he wasted no time in ripping the paper down the side.

Inside there was a folding knife, which he unfolded and tested out in his hand. It looked like it was of pretty good quality, a damascus blade and a handle that Sylvain hastily explained was made from stag horn. Felix’s initials were carved on the side.

“Since it’s kind of my fault you lost your other one, it felt like the right thing to do to replace it for you,” he explained, which was reasonable, but something about the gift felt like a little bit more than what you would get your best friend. Or maybe Glenn was just projecting, who could say?

Felix hummed in appreciation as he unfolded the knife again, letting his finger run along the blade edge. “It will do,” he declared, but he was giving Sylvain a look that one might even call fond.

The rest of the morning, Sylvain was curled up with the blanket wrapped around his shoulders and though he tried to goad Felix into joining him under it, he never took the bait.

It was a sweet scene, and once again Glenn didn’t quite have it in him to call them out. He was probably losing his touch.

~~~

Glenn genuinely wasn’t intending to eavesdrop. He was nosy, he was certainly too nosy, but in this case it genuinely wasn’t his fault.

He was walking down the hall to his room and he’d heard his name, and there was absolutely no chance that he was just going to walk past without at least trying to figure out the context.

“ - doesn’t really make a difference if he knows,” Felix’s voice. The two of them were in his room, with the door just barely cracked (no one had even said that they needed to keep their door open, but it was kind of hilarious to see that they were following the cliched rule nonetheless).

“I know, I know,” and that was Sylvain. “And I don’t think that it should change anything. But I think I might have been a little too obvious, that’s all.”

“You usually are,” he responded, but there was a quiet laugh afterward. He sounded fond.

Neither of them said anything for a moment, and Glenn was about to move on before he heard Felix start to speak again.

“If you were to really want to tell them outright, we - ”

“Don’t. It’s okay,” Sylvain said. “We’ve already talked about it.”

“I know,” he said, sighing. “I just - I don’t want you to feel like you’re some kind of dirty little secret.”

“Oh, I would be a hell of a dirty secret.”

A smack, then Sylvain playfully grumbling that Felix couldn’t take a joke.

“Be serious. I mean it, I don’t want you hide you, and if you feel like you’re being - ”

“I think we’re both happier without the pressure.”

He leaned against the wall to avoid being noticed where he was, listening in on their conversation. He’d apologize for it later, maybe.

“I can wait, you know? It doesn’t make a difference to me whether your family knows we’re together now or later,” Sylvain said. “That’s not going to make me love you any less.”

Honestly, he wasn’t expecting to hear that, and he stumbled a little bit. There were footsteps inside the room, and for a second Glenn tensed, readying himself to flee if he needed to. But there was just the sound of lips against lips, and he suspected that he had safely avoided being detected.

Felix spoke again then, his voice just barely audible from where he was standing. “I love you too. Don’t forget it.”

Glenn pushed himself off of the wall then and returned to his original goal, deciding that he had heard enough.

He felt like he ought to actually try and have that conversation with Sylvain, even though he had been right in saying that Felix would hate it. It was a little bit ridiculous to think about Felix as he was now as someone who needed protecting, but sometimes he still felt like he was the same little kid who would cry over anything and everything.

He had spent years looking after his little brother, after all. He’d spent much of his youth looking after Felix and getting him through all of his highs and lows.

But, he realized, he hadn’t been the only one looking out for him all that time. Even though he had his faults, Sylvain had seen the same scared, needy kid that Felix was, and he’d taken care of him just the same and had never run from it.

So maybe he could be in worse hands.

~~~

Somehow, having the confirmation that Sylvain and Felix were, in fact, an item made it feel a bit less exciting to try and tease Felix about it. For the most part, for the rest of their visit, Glenn just let it be; maybe he was growing as a person, now mature enough to let his baby brother take his time in feeling ready to share what was most likely his first real, serious relationship.

That being said, he could only be expected to be  _ so _ mature, so on the morning that the pair was set to head back out of town, he caught Felix on his own while Sylvain was rearranging their luggage in the back of the car. 

“So… Sylvain, huh?” he said.

Felix turned to look at him just the  _ slightest _ bit too sharply, and Glenn had to hold back the urge to laugh. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Of course you don’t,” he said, shaking his head. “Listen, you don’t have to play coy. I know.”

There was just a little bit of color splashing across his cheekbones, and there was honestly something kind of fascinating about how all it had taken to turn his baby brother back into the flustered, reactive mess he had been as a kid was getting a boyfriend. It made him feel like he should have tried to set Felix up with someone years ago (not that he would have ever gone for it, sure, but he could have tried; maybe the process would’ve been good to laugh at, too).

“It’s not a big deal,” Felix said.

Raising his eyebrow, he couldn’t quite hold back a scoff. “I don’t think that Gautier out there would be too happy to hear that.”

A strangled sound escaped his brother’s throat, and his gaze was hard until he turned it back out the window through which they both had a good view of Sylvain tossing a pair of shoes over the backseat. “That’s not what I mean,” he said. When he spoke again, his voice was quieter, as if he was telling a secret even though there was no one around to hear it but the two of them. “It’s… Yes, Sylvain is very important to me. More important than he probably even realizes.”

That was a level of honesty that Glenn wasn’t really expecting out of his brother, and neither of them spoke for a few seconds. “I don’t know about that,” he said eventually. “I think he’s just as into you as you are into him.”

“That’s true,” he said with a small nod, once again catching him by surprise though perhaps it shouldn’t have; Felix could be incredibly sure of himself in the right circumstances. “I just have to convince him of that.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing,” he said, “Just… Convincing him that he means as much to me as he does. Because he does.”

Privately, Glenn wasn’t sure that that was an issue, either, given how happy they seemed to be from his limited perspective. But, of course, his perspective  _ was _ limited, and it wasn't his place to make a judgment. He doubted that Felix would appreciate unsolicited advice. “Well, I’m sure that you’ll figure it out.”

Felix huffed, shaking himself out of it. “Anyway, like I said, it’s not a big deal,” he said. “Don’t make a big deal out of any of this.”

“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t dream of it,” he said. Looking back over at him, he asked, “He makes you happy?”

For a moment, it looked like he was going to act like he hadn’t heard him, but eventually he answered with a swift nod. “Yeah. He does.”

Sylvain was headed back inside at that point, and Glenn had to let the moment pass - with much less familial teasing than he’d anticipated.

Still, when they stood on the front lawn half an hour later exchanging their goodbyes, Felix surprised him by pulling him into a hug.

“Good luck with everything,” he said into his ear. “I’m glad you’re happy.”

“Thanks,” he mumbled, giving him a quick squeeze before pulling away.

Glenn looked to Sylvain then, taking it upon himself to give him a hug as well. “I’ve got my eye on you, got it?”

The redhead tensed for just a second, surprised, before he nodded. “You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

“I better not,” he said. Then, with a smile on his face as he pulled back, “It was good to see both of you. Drive safe, baby brother.”

Felix flipped him off, but they were all smiling as he moved towards the driver’s side of the car. “Alright, that’s enough of that. We’re going.”

“See you next Christmas, if not before then,” Sylvain called out with a wave, and he sounded confident enough that Glenn didn’t doubt that next year he would, in fact, be back the next year, officially as Felix’s boyfriend.

“See you.”

**Author's Note:**

> [say hi on twitter](https://twitter.com/bigfootsflannel), slide into my dms to scream about santa felix
> 
> also, go forth and make your own [slow cooker hot cocoa](https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/a50816/slow-cooker-hot-chocolate-recipe/)


End file.
